IAACE Blog: News for You

Sixty-five-year-old Johnnie Gullens describes the time preparing to take his Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC) as a “long journey.” He first began taking classes at the WorkOne site in 2004 but dropped out after becoming discouraged when he only passed part of the GED test. Seven years later, in 2011, Johnnie decided to try again. He had been attending evening classes at the Bendix site ever since. This March he took the TASC and all his perseverance paid off. He passed and is now an HSE graduate. Johnnie says education was not highly valued in the world in which he grew up. He was born in Arkansas and was often pulled out of school to do farm work. He felt he couldn’t keep up with the other students because of all the school he missed. So when he was in seventh grade, he dropped out. After graduation, Johnnie says he wants to take his new knowledge and skills and help others. Since returning to school, he’s says he found it’s the internal motivation that has helped him be successful. “I had to want to do it for myself,” he says. Johnnie says he has enjoyed working with other students and his teachers are always there to encourage him. “When I felt I wasn’t ready, they (teachers) reached out and pulled me in,” he says. He credits his math teacher, Jay Snyder, with providing lots of great lessons and helping him feel he could pass the math portion of the test, which is often the most difficult for students. What does Johnnie want others to know? “I’m 65 and I know it can be done.”